Cameron for Interview magazine

Cameron Monaghan’s year has been hectic. Apparently, though, that’s just the way the 20-year-old actor likes it. He’s coming off the most tumultuous season of Shameless yet (and that’s saying something), and he has two new movies out this month: the big-budget novel adaptation The Giver, and Jamie Marks is Dead, a chilling indie about a guilty teenager seeing the ghost of a deceased classmate.

Charming and boyish, with a perpetually mischievous smirk, and then alternately wise and introverted, Monaghan’s portrayals give due complexity to the roles he’s taken thus far. What’s remarkable about these performances is their honesty. Even as Ian on Shameless, who is gay and biopolar-two things Monaghan is not-the actor rarely plays too far outside himself. Monaghan calls it putting “facets of yourself into those characters,” and there’s an impressive range of empathy to his often troubled roles. 4